Campaigning to save the planet is a particularly dangerous activity in Latin America. “If someone wants to kill you, just pay 50 dollars to a hitman”, thus assures El País UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, Michel Forst.
Asked by the Spanish daily about the risks run by climate activists, the rapporteur explains that “in Mexico, Brazil, Honduras and Colombia” even if “the governments have put in place protection mechanisms”, “ there is always a place where one is not protected. “It is very dangerous to be an environmental activist in Latin America,” he summarizes.
Collusion between private and public interests
According to the NGO Global Witness, nearly 2,000 climate activists have been killed over the past decade, recalls the Spanish daily, but this is “the tip of the iceberg”, says Michel Forst. “In Latin America, parts of Africa and the Philippines, these people are simply killed.
“Every two days, the murder of an environmental defender is reported,” he said. The interests of the planet can sometimes interfere with certain public or private interests, in particular “linked to corruption, the mafia and drug trafficking”, explains Michel Forst.